Best Early Prime Big Deal Days Sales Under $25
We're seeing discounts already on tons of top products, including household essentials, great tech gear, and more
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Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days event, which will take place on Oct. 7 and 8 this year, is quickly approaching. To help budget-conscious shoppers find the best products for their wallets, we’ve been searching the early deals for the most promising offers on items under $25. While the sale is still a few days away, there are already some great bargan buys, and these items are things we tend to see on sale for these prices every time Amazon has a big sale, so we don’t expect them to get much cheaper (if at all) during Prime Big Deal Days. So if you just can’t wait to shop, you can do a littlew bit now to scratch the itch while you wait for more discounts to roll in.
When all the sales start next week (Target and Walmart are having big sales too, and many other retailers will offer competitive pricing as well), our team of experts will be tracking everything and highlighting the top deals. This way, you don’t have to sift through the thousands of offers to find the ones that are really worth it. We look at more than just the sticker price, taking into account the cost of an item over time as well as how well it actually works, based on our lab tests and at-home evaluations, to determine the best value. Bookmark our Deals hub, where you can see everything we find as we find it during Prime Big Deal Days and throughout the holiday season.
Household Essentials
Dawn Platinum Plus PowerSuds Liquid Dish Soap
When we tested three of Dawn’s dish soaps against each other, we found that they all cleaned dishes well. Dawn Platinum Plus PowerSuds Liquid Dish Soap boasts “2x the suds,” according to the label. We found that the suds it produced remained rich even after washing eight dirty dishes. It had a pleasant smell, and it was easy to dispense onto our test sponges.
Persil Ultra Pacs Advanced Clean Oxi+Odor Power’s cleaning performance was not as stellar as other single-dose laundry detergent pacs we’ve tested in our lab, but our testers did see very good results in its removal of chocolate, body oil, and dirt. Even in very hard water, they maintained their cleaning performance. If you’ve got sports players at home, this may not be the right choice for you, though, since they struggled to remove grass stains from our test fabrics.
Tub O'Towels Heavy Duty Cleaning Wipes
Tub O’Towel Heavy-Duty Cleaning Wipes are big enough for heavy-duty cleaning and reusing. Dried-up sweet potato, milk, hot sauce, and rice were no match for these wipes. They were also easy to dispense from the tub.
Kitchen Tools
Ecolution Micro Pop Microwave Popcorn Maker
If you want a microwave popcorn maker, this BPA-free model was our favorite from our evaluations. It’s glass- and dishwasher-safe. But note that it works only with microwaves with a turntable. And it’s never been under $10 before.
KitchenAid Gourmet 4-Sided Stainless Steel Box Grater
The KitchenAid Gourmet 4-Sided Stainless Steel Box Grater features four sides for grating, shredding, slicing, and zesting, along with a convenient 3-cup container that fits neatly inside to catch your grated or sliced ingredients, making prep and storage a breeze.
Rük 22-in-1 Veggie Dicer
There’s a lot to like about the RüK veggie dicer. It’s fairly stable and secure, thanks to rubber feet and a top that seals securely to the basin when you press down. It also includes extra inserts for different cuts, such as grating and julienne and mandoline cuts, along with the standard half-inch and quarter-inch chopping blades and a garnish slicer. But perhaps the best part is that this dicer is dishwasher-safe and easy to disassemble.
HyperChiller Iced Coffee Maker
If you love cold coffee but dislike the flavor when ice waters it down, consider this a fix. Fill two of the HyperChiller’s three separate inner chambers with water, freeze, then pour hot coffee into the third for nonwatery cold coffee 60 seconds later.
Grove Co. Replaceable Head Glassware Brush
This bottle brush is great for cleaning wide-neck bottles. Its round head is made up of rectangular sponge pieces, and the head is replaceable, so you won’t have to toss the whole brush when the sponges reach the end of their useful life.
Dowan Ceramic Butter Crock
This budget-friendly butter crock has a retro look, akin to something you’d find in an antique shop. It’s dishwasher-safe and comes in a plethora of colors, including robin’s egg blue, classic red, sapphire blue, and white.
Greenrain Silicone Pastry Mat
This handy nonslip silicone mat comes with measured markings that can take the guesswork out of baking. The food stylist and cookbook author Jesse Szewczyk loves to use this silicone mat for rolling out dough to specific shapes and doing so much more. “Need a 10-inch circle for a pie? Or an 11-inch square for shortbread?” he says. “Just check the mat! Not only does it help make measuring easy, but it’s nonstick and makes cleanup a breeze.” The best part? You can roll it up and take it to the sink—no need to clean the countertop—and just as easily stash it in a drawer when you’re done.
Our grill expert recommends these sheet pans as the perfect accessory for transporting food to and from the grill and the kitchen. He uses one for raw food and the other to bring everything back once it’s cooked. And while hand-washing is recommended to avoid discoloration, he cleans them in the dishwasher on the sanitize cycle after he’s used them to hold raw meat. He even says the resulting discoloration has not affected their performance, and he’s owned them for over a decade.
Home Goods
Blackout curtains can be a total game-changer. The Amazon Basics Room Darkening Blackout Curtains are among the best we evaluated for a number of reasons. Tested in both black and white, they scored a perfect 5 out of 5 for their ability to block light. As for how well the curtains provide insulation against heat loss and gain, we scored it 4 out of 5. Made from polyester/polyurethane, each panel uses loops to attach to a rod. They’re also washable—making them both functional and convenient.
Elegear Revolutionary Cooling Blanket
The Elegear Revolutionary Cooling Blanket was CR’s top pick because it kept us the coolest in our tests and was comfortable, soft, and well-made. It features smooth Arc-Chill 3.0 Cool Fabric on one side and Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certified cotton on the other side.
Magic Bag Instant Space Saver
If you’re looking to store your winter clothes, vacuum storage bags can be a great way to get them out of the way without taking up a ton of space. And this set of three from MagicBag could be a good option, especially for under $10. While these bags did require a big, more physical effort to seal, our evaluator noted that they didn’t have caps on the valves, which made it easier to use them overall. And with the zipper, one side is blue and the other is yellow—it turns green when it’s closed properly.
Tech
The Anker Nano is particularly pint-sized, at just 3.6 ounces. It receives solid marks for charging speed, both when it’s charging a device and when it’s being recharged at the wall. And it has two USB-C ports, including a foldable male USB-C port you can plug directly into your phone—no connecting cable needed. The Anker Nano only has enough capacity to fully charge an average smartphone from zero battery about once, or to top it off a few times—so this wouldn’t be the charger to take on a days-long trip. But it does have handy LED lights that show you its battery status, so you know when it’s time to plug it back into an outlet.
Metapen Pencil A8 Stylus
This budget stylus is compatible with nearly every iPad made after 2018, and it is the most impressive non-Apple stylus we evaluated. Our tester, a professional illustrator, said it felt like drawing with a real pen on paper, and drawing felt like "a dream." It offers palm rejection and tilt support. It’s easy to turn on—just double-tap the top—and it doesn’t require pairing with your iPad. Plus, it attaches to the iPad magnetically, reducing the chances you’ll lose it.
Digiroot Fast-Charging Stylus
Want to spend even less on a new stylus? This model from Digiroot might be a good option. It’s worth noting that our testers suggest this one is better for simple tasks like note-taking and doodling but not so much for detailed drawing because it lacks pressure sensitivity.
Apple AirTag
Much like trackers made by Samsung and Tile, Apple AirTags work best if it’s within Bluetooth range (roughly 30 feet) of your own phone. But, that said, there are millions of iPhones and other Apple devices roaming around out there that can pick up a signal and discreetly convey it to you when you find yourself searching, say, a park or a school campus for the keys you dropped. Is the tracking pinpoint accurate? No. But it’s close enough to give you a huge head start in your search.
Pet Necessities
Veken Pet Fountain
This is a great, budget-friendly option if you’re not sure your pets will adapt from a bowl to a fountain. You can try it out without investing too much (and you can always invest more in an upgrade later on if you want). The Veken water fountain, consisting of five parts, was intuitive for our tester to assemble, and the carbon and foam filter replacements are low-cost as well, at $10 for a four-pack or $24 for 16. It was the noisiest option, but that didn’t deter the tester’s pets. And the flower can be removed for a low-profile bubbler effect rather than a raised fountain.
Wonder Creature Store Cat Water Fountain (Stainless Steel)
“I have two of these, and they’re great because they encourage the cats to drink more water,” says Amanda Arnold, senior manager of business analytics at CR. “Cats notoriously don’t usually drink enough water, so having these helps keep their water cleaner and the kitties healthier!” The fountain comes with a filter inside and is dishwasher-safe.
Beauty
MZoo Sleep Mask
The Mzoo typically costs $23, and its sale price tends to hover around $20, making this an exceptionally good time to buy—I’ve never seen it this low. It’s also well-designed and effective at blocking light for most face shapes and head sizes. CR’s team of evaluators had a wide range of preferences and needs, and yet most agreed that the Mzoo mask was a great option.
Conair Double Ceramic Flat Iron
The Conair Double Ceramic Flat Iron is a great lower-cost option if you’re in the market for a new one. It has five temperature settings, a rare find at this price, and it heats up in about 30 seconds, but the temperatures vary about 6 degrees from whatever you set it to. Our evaluator found it to be a bit clunky to use, but it’s small, light, and easy to maneuver thanks to pivoting plates and a swivel cord.
YoulerTex Hair Towels
If you’re looking for a new hair towel that stays put, this might be the one you’ve been waiting for. Our testers found that the YoulerTex hair towels stayed snugly in place. They’re a bit thicker than other towels we evaluated, but this didn’t make them any more absorbent. The testers all said their hair was still damp after about half an hour of wear time, but it might be the perfect choice if you’re the kind of person who sleeps in their hair towel.
Ouidad Advanced Climate Control Heat & Humidity Gel
Ouidad gel was a favorite among our testers, and has been a go-to for one of our writers for years. She says it provides just the right amount of light hold without weighing down her curls. It also controls frizz and keeps her hair feeling silky. If you’re looking for a new product to take your locks, this sale price could be the perfect reason to give this brand a try.
This Biore UV Aqua Rich SPF 50 Daily Moisturizer facial sunscreen uses chemical active ingredients and delivers strong broad-spectrum protection, with excellent UVA coverage to help prevent premature aging and long-term skin damage, and very good UVB protection to effectively guard against sunburn. Its high-performing formula makes it well-suited for daily use as well as extended time outdoors, offering reliable defense in a lightweight, comfortable application. It’s a lotion with a citrus and lemongrass aroma, but it is not water-resistant.
Travel
Veken Packing Cubes
Veken Packing Cubes provide great bang for your buck, though they are a few dollars more than we’ve seen recently. This set has the largest capacity among the cubes we tried, and you get eight different ones to stay organized: four small, medium, large, and extra large, a laundry bag, a shoe bag, a toiletries bag, and an accessories bag. The laundry bag, in particular, is on the larger side, which can be a real asset when you’re on a longer trip.
Vulkit VC-104 Slim Wallet
If your wallet can use a little tidying up, consider taking a slimmer approach. Think of the Vulkit VC-104 as a low-risk stepping stone toward minimalist wallets. Featuring an aluminum case with an elastic front pocket (that’s great for folded dollar bills or coins), the wallet is available in a wide range of colors, including two-tone.
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